DAN PIRES: Pats unfazed by biggest Big One

You do realize the 2004 New York Yankees are pulling for their Gotham City homeboys to pull it off Sunday?

DAN PIRES

You do realize the 2004 New York Yankees are pulling for their Gotham City homeboys to pull it off Sunday?

There's fresh meat on the table and the Sons of Steinbrenner can't wait for their ignominious legacy to be wiped from the psyche of every sports fan in America. They would like nothing more than for it to be the New England Patriots to be the ones to free their wretched souls.

Hey, it may not be a full redemption against the Red Sox, but who wants to be known in perpetuity as the biggest loser? Nothing trumps a three-game lead and subsequent implosion like a total 18-0 meltdown.

After coming this far, losing is not an option for the Patriots. Eighteen straight wins doesn't mean squat if New England falls on its collective faces in Super Bowl XLII.

While Bill Belichick and every person in the Patriots organization has said only glowing things about the New York Giants, a perfect regular season and an almost perfect post-season only translates to abject failure if they're not the ones standing under a steady rain of red, white and blue confetti while hoisting the Vince Lombardi trophy.

Everything that's happened since early September has now manifested itself into a single game. The most significant single game in the history of the NFL.

And a game where the Giants, and the Giants alone, have nothing to lose.

"It's the biggest game of all of our lives — my life, the entire team, our coaches. We're going to be remembering this game for as long as we live, win or lose," quarterback Tom Brady said. "We're going to have great memories of this experience or we're going to look at it truly as a missed opportunity.

Brady said it himself: "There's not too many teams in the history of the NFL — none, in fact — that have been 18-0 going into this game."

Were that not pressure enough, the plaudits of the Giants aren't pure exaggeration.

"We're playing a great football team, a team that certainly deserves to be here, the NFC champions; a team we played that gave us everything we could handle in the last week of the season," Brady said. "They've got great coaching and playing at every position on the field. They're a veteran team that's played very well under the pressure and under the scrutiny of the city that they play in. I can't say enough about the Giants. I hope we've done enough this last week and a half to prepare ourselves."

The Patriots can win without Brady being perfect. He may have set records, but he's had his struggles down the stretch and the Patriots have managed to pull out wins — the perfect example being the 66.4 QB rating and three interceptions he posted in the AFC Championship game.

The Giants, however, can't overcome a similar performance from their signal caller, Eli Manning. About the only obstacle to the Patriots path to perfection is the Giants seventh-ranked defense, which led the NFL with 53 sacks.

The only chance the Giants have of derailing the Patriots party train would be with Brady standing on the sidelines, totally out of the game — it's just that simple. That's easier said than done, though. The Giants were able to drop Brady only once in the regular-season finale.

"(Brady) might be rattled, but he surely doesn't show it," Patriots wide receiver Randy Moss said. "To put him in a situation to get him rattled, I think if you take the five offensive linemen out of the equation, make him snap the ball to himself and let (Giants defensive end Michael) Strahan and them rush with no protection. That would probably rattle him. Six-on-11, I think that'll rattle him. But, that's about it."

Eighteen down, one to go. Despite the magnitude of the moment, Bill Belichick remains both realistic and undaunted.

"It's the biggest game of all of our football careers because it's the next game," he said. "It's the next game, it's the Super Bowl, it's for the championship, so I can't think of a bigger game than that. We're here and that's we're here for. We worked all year for this game and we're happy to be a participant in it. We're privileged to be in it, and of course it's a big game — it's a huge game. It's a year's worth of work to get here."

Bill has been here before: three Super Bowl wins as a head coach, two more as a Giants assistant. He and his team are ready to put all the hype behind them, and face their future.